The Packers head into Sunday’s opener with two glaring absences already baked into the plan. Josh Jacobs is still on the Commissioner’s Exempt List and can’t practice or play, while Micah Parsons remains on reserve/PUP as he continues rehab from a torn ACL.
Green Bay’s trip to U.S. Bank Stadium kicks off at 3:25 p.m.
CT on CBS, and because the game is indoors, whatever is happening outside won’t matter.
Neither player has a standard game designation attached to him. Both are simply unavailable.
Jacobs landed on the exempt list on Aug. 30, per NFL.com, and only Commissioner Roger Goodell can clear him to return. There’s no timetable yet. For fantasy managers, that means he stays on the bench or in an IR slot where league rules allow it.
Parsons has a different path, but the same short-term result. Green Bay placed him on reserve/PUP at roster cutdown time, which forces him to miss at least the first four games.
General manager Brian Gutekunst has said the Packers expect to be “pretty close” once that window ends, a line first reported by Ryan Wood of USA Today via RotoWire. Parsons has previously pointed to Week 6 against Dallas as a realistic target, while Week 5 at home against Chicago is the earliest he can possibly play.
The official Week 1 injury report gives Green Bay a few more things to watch. Left guard Aaron Banks (knee), right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele (knee) and linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper (Achilles) are questionable. Defensive tackle Warren Brinson is out with a calf injury after missing every practice this week, according to the Friday report on Packers.com.
Banks has been dealing with knee tendinitis, and Bako-Bewele is working back from offseason patellar tendon surgery. Both were limited all week.
Banks told reporters Thursday that he expected a game-time call. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky also posted a positive midweek update, noting that Jordan Morgan was upgraded to a full participant and that Banks said he got through limited work without a setback.
Morgan practiced fully Thursday and Friday and carries no designation. Javon Hargrave, Devonte Wyatt and Barryn Sorrell were limited during the week but avoided final tags as well. Jordan Love, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft never appeared on the report.
If Banks or Bako-Bewele can’t go, the Packers would be looking at Donovan Jennings, rookie Jager Burton or Anthony Belton. That would only add to the concern up front for an offense already missing its top back. Minnesota, meanwhile, had no players with game designations on its final report.
Jacobs’ absence changes the backfield picture in a big way. MarShawn Lloyd is the player expected to lead the group, with Chris Brooks and Kaleb Johnson also in the mix. Green Bay acquired Johnson, the former Steelers third-round pick, on Aug. 30 for a 2028 sixth-round choice, per the team’s official announcement.
Lloyd brings speed and burst from his USC days, but he has very little NFL track record. FantasyPros projects him for about 14.4 carries and 1.8 receptions this week and has him around RB27, which puts him in RB2/flex range rather than anywhere close to a true Jacobs replacement.
Consensus projections sit near 15 touches. Brooks should see some passing-down and short-yardage work, while Johnson remains more of a stash until the rotation sorts itself out on the field.
The concern is not just workload. It’s also the matchup and the protection around him.
Brian Flores still brings a pressure-heavy defense that mixes fronts and sends extra rushers from odd angles. If Green Bay’s line is patched together, that makes life tougher for a young back trying to find daylight.
Lloyd gets the first shot, but the volume is not guaranteed.
Love is healthy and off the report, but this is not a soft landing spot. He’s best treated as a matchup-based QB2 rather than a locked-in QB1.
Flores’ defense is built on pre-snap confusion, and Green Bay spreads the ball around at receiver. Watson looks like the strongest WR2 in the group.
Reed sits in WR3/WR4 territory. Golden is more of a WR4 until the target distribution becomes clearer.
Kraft stands out as the cleanest Packers skill-player start. He’s the safest TE1 option and should remain involved near the goal line after agreeing to a four-year extension, according to reporting from Adam Schefter via FOX Sports.
Parsons’ absence also drags down the Packers’ D/ST outlook. Green Bay loses its best pressure creator, and with Brinson already out and Hopper questionable, the defense loses some of its punch.
Hargrave, Wyatt and Sorrell being available helps the interior hold together, but the sack and turnover ceiling drops without Parsons. This isn’t a defense you need to chase in Week 1.
The inactive list, which comes 90 minutes before kickoff, will answer the remaining questions on the offensive line. For now, the picture is clear enough: Jacobs is out, Lloyd becomes a volume-based flex, Love carries matchup risk, Kraft is the safest Packers start, and Green Bay’s defense takes a step back until Parsons returns.
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